Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Some of you may have noticed that our drummer Marc Dixon is on crutches. He badly sprained his ankle and had deep contusions of the muscles, after at a fall at our show at Blues On The Mall on July 1. The good news is that after a week of painful crutching around, he is started to be able to put some pressure on his foot. We expect a full recovery by the middle of July. Marc has still been able to drum at our shows, crutches and all. Infact, we received standing ovations at The Common Ground Music Festival in Lansing, Michigan and at The North Atlantic Blues Festival in Rockland, Maine, here in the USA.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

July is upon us and we are gearing up for a great festival season here in the USA. The last two weeks of June saw my band "Midwest Kind" and I heading to Missouri for the Parkville Riverjam right on the Missouri River which was moving with great speed. Apparently last year, the whole park was flooded and the festival took place high up on the hill. We had a great show and the weather was absolutely stunning. Unfortunately Marc our drummer left behind his timbales in the darkness at the back of the stage. Thankfully they were found, so hopefully the drums will be shipped back to us very soon. We also had some great shows at Skips Lounge in Indiana and the fabulous BB's in St Louis, Missouri.

Then we headed out to Lincoln, Nebraska for the Celebrate Lincoln Festival. The weather was not the best, but thankfully we had no rain during our set. Chubby Carrier performed after us and put on an amazing show. Marc Dixon our drummer jammed with the band doing his zydeco thing!. The rain pelted down, but many die hards stayed to the bitter end! Later that night we were woken at 4am by a huge raucous party next door. At first we blamed Chubby who was also staying at the hotel. But later we found out it was the Roller Derby Girls who had literally taken over the hotel. There were two parties going, one on the first floor and one on the second floor. After many complaints, the party was moved out into the car park and went all night. The poor nerdy guy on the front desk, didn't know what to do. The Roller Derby Girls just laughed at him and offered him a beer , when he asked them to quieten down. It was a wild night thats for sure.

On our way to Springfield Illinois, we were driving west on State Highway 36 when a large semi trailer truck, which was driving on the wrong side of the road, forced us off the highway. Thankfully I had a gut feeling something like this was going to happen, so I was ready to get out of the way. Still we all had a quite a scare!

Our show at The Alamo in Springfield, Illinois went really well, then we headed home to Michigan the next day. We performed at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, Top of the Parks Stage, outside in the 94 degree heat. It was HOT!!!! We were very inspired by our friend Diane, who was hit by a bus earlier this year, dancing throughout the entire set. Good for you Diane!We headed south to The Rathskeller in Indianapolis for another outdoor show. We got to jam and hang out with Biscuit Miller and our former guitarist Tyler Mac . I would have to say the temperature would have got to 100 degrees, because it was 93 degrees at 11pm at night. It was a hot one thats for sure. After a private party in Leland, Michigan we headed west to The Alpena Music Festival. Thankfully the weather was alot cooler, but with the coolness came the rain. It pretty much rained lightly throughout our show, but the folks there didn't seem to mind.